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But checks revealed he had no valid passport and a £20,000 aerial and land search was launched by a specialist forensic team to find his body in a plot on the land near Tregaron, West Wales.

Sturdey buried her husband with the help of his paid carer, Boqer-Ore Adie and Adie's daughter, Karmel.

Prosecutor Huw Rees said Adie, 43, was paid in excess of £19,000 in income support and carers' allowance for looking after Mr Sturdey in the years after he died.

The Department for Work and Pensions said after October 2008, when Mr Sturdey died, his wife and carer claimed £21,718 in disability living allowances, £9,415 in carer's allowance, £10,143 in income support and £36,041 in pension credits.

Search: Sturdey was sentenced to 20 months for preventing the lawful and decent burial after police discovered the body at her home (pictured)

Mr Rees said: 'He was buried in a rockery at twice the depth of a normal grave.

'The women later admitted the rockery was the easiest place to bury a body but it was what he wanted.

'His body was remarkably well-preserved and he was identified by his dental records.

'The women were originally arrested on suspicion of murder but tests showed he had died of natural causes.